I just found this thread. As it turns out I will be visiting my parents on the 30th, and they live just 10 miles from Woodstock. I'll have to see if I can convince my wife to baby-sit our newborn daughter with the inlaws! If so, I'd love to join in.

I think I may be able to make it (at least for the morning/early afternoon). If Woodstock is still on the agenda, that might be the easiest place to meet. There's a good bakery called Bread Alone right in town that would be a convenient morning meeting place.

If it's just Kaaterskill Falls, then maybe the parking area just up the hill from there would be the easiest place to meet.

What are you guys thinking time-wise? It looks like some of you are coming from quite far, so is this an early GTG or later?

I've set the whole day aside, so I can leave at any time in the morning, and not worry about being home until we're ready to leave.
From the sound of it, perhaps starting around 10 or 12 would be best, maybe taking a break for lunch, and doing a bit more?

Here's a tentative plan I'm working on. Please bear with me as I may edit this multiple times, depending on feedback. See the bottom for last edit times. I may be planning too much, but I'd like to make the most of the day, if people don't think it's crazy! (I'm going to go ahead and post this while I'm working on it. I just had to recreate a part of it as I accidentally closed the tab while working on it and looking at various sites. SO PLEASE AGAIN NOTE THAT THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS).

The "group idea": Since people will be coming from different places with different schedules, we could schedule three meeting times, at three or four places:

Early AM (8 AM): Kaaterskill (K) and Bastion Falls. I think this would be a good morning shoot (weather permitting). Note that Bastion falls is a perfect meeting place--it's a beautiful and interesting falls near the road on the trail to Katterskill. If people come at slightly different times, you can wait at Bastion and start shooting rather than wasting time and light while awaiting others to arrive. With a method like this, we could all do something to identify group members. I suggest tying a red or orange ribbon or string to your camera bag.

This area gets a lot of visitors, and so, to avoid having too many people in our way, I suggest going there first.

Now I've been to K twice. The rest of these places, are from my research, so if anyone knows more than the internet is telling me, jump in!

Another possibility for mid morning is trying to gain access to the top of K falls. The Hunter site below tells how to get there from an alternate road entrance. Might be a good location for foliage. Shooting the falls itself from the top isn't the best perspective!

While in Woodstock you may want to visit the Center for Photography on Tinker Street.

3:30 Mountain view to Sunset shooting. For this we want to achieve some altitude. I am still looking into this. It would seem that Overlook mountain might be a good place, but there are some logistical issues I haven't overcome yet. Namely, it seems like you might have to hike 2 miles up and 2 miles back. The perks there are a fire tower you can climb for more altitude, and the ruins of an old resort.

But I am going to look for a place we can get closer to in our cars so no one is left out, and we can stay longer without worrying about hiking back in the dark. Note it gets dark by 7:00 now!

One alternative possibility: Hunter Mountain. They have an Octoberfest Sep 30, and the lift will be open.

I've ordered a guide to waterfalls in the catskills which should be here tomorrow that might also give some other interesting ones.

Note that if it's raining (hard), there's some interesting art to view in Woodstock. The artists museum has a Black and White exhibition.

Sounds good to me. I especially like the idea of being at the falls early like that.

For the afternoon, the link to Ashley's Falls isn't working. Here's the fixed link: Ashely's Falls Between the three of them, I'd vote for the Devil's Kitchen as the most interesting to shoot, followed by either of the others.

Overlook Mt. sounds really cool, but 5 miles round trip with photo gear is going to be a trek. Not sure how everyone else feels about it. I'm game, but if there is a way to get closer with the cars, that would be good.

I'm ok with meeting at 8, but having to be at another location by 10:00 might be difficult. By the time everyone finds the falls, exchanges pleasantries and hikes into the falls, it could be after 9. Then we'd have to head out of the falls area almost immediately in order to be back into our cars by 9:30 in order to reach the next checkpoint. It's do-able, just tight I think.

9 - 12 - 3 times (checkpoints) would give people an opportunity to be slower

but i'm game for whatever ... i don't even like landscapes :)

edit to say if the 12 checkpoint is just for lunch, then 3 hours wouldn't be necessary.

I'm ok with meeting at 8, but having to be at another location by 10:00 might be difficult. By the time everyone finds the falls, exchanges pleasantries and hikes into the falls, it could be after 9. Then we'd have to head out of the falls area almost immediately in order to be back into our cars by 9:30 in order to reach the next checkpoint. It's do-able, just tight I think.

9 - 12 - 3 times (checkpoints) would give people an opportunity to be slower

but i'm game for whatever ... i don't even like landscapes :)

edit to say if the 12 checkpoint is just for lunch, then 3 hours wouldn't be necessary.

I've lengthened the times. That's good especially at Kaaterskill. Having been there twice last year, assuming you are not trying to get on top of the falls by hiking, I think 2 hours there is enough. The rest would depend on where we go next (I'm looking in each case for something no more than 10 miles or so away), but now if those are "meeting times" we have a half hour to get to the next place even after spending two hours.

I agree with Hopper i think this plan is a bit agressive because you never know what will happen and doing things in groups always takes longer than you think because you end up waiting and stopping alot.

However, if everyone is okay with being flexible and these being "approximate" times, then it should work... hopefully people can make it for at least part of the day

I'm pretty sure I can do this, at least the morning part. I'll probably skip Overlook though. The views are good up there, but it is a time-consuming hike and I have a late-afternoon committment (plus my wife will be very ready for me to rescue her from her inlaws by then :-)

I'm pretty sure I can do this, at least the morning part. I'll probably skip Overlook though. The views are good up there, but it is a time-consuming hike and I have a late-afternoon committment (plus my wife will be very ready for me to rescue her from her inlaws by then :-)

I posted that for discussion, but I'm not sure how many are interested in actually hiking with their equipment. The alternative so far is Hunter and their free Octoberfest + the lift. I've been there years ago for skiing but don't know if it's a good alternative.

There's still a bit of work to figure out the afternoon/sunset. But it's great if you can make any part of it!